Empire State Building Owners Spar Over IPO Plan

Marshall Kramer, a 76-year-old retiree in Katy, Texas, picked up his phone recently and was surprised to hear the voice of Peter Malkin, whose family controls the Empire State Building.

Mr. Kramer and his two siblings own just one of the 3,300 shares in a private company that owns the famed skyscraper. Mr. Malkin was calling to persuade him to support the Malkin family's plan to take the company public. "I basically got a...